Disney star gets to perform for family

Her grandpa will be in the audience when Disney On Ice’s “Rockin’ Ever After” skates into Comcast Arena for four days, Nov. 21 through 24.

Kristin Cowan is Ariel in the show, which makes the rounds this month in Spokane, Kent and Everett.

“I always wanted to play my hometown,” said Spokane native Cowan, 26. “I have family in the Seattle area, too. They can come see me skate and on my days off I can see them.”

Her grandfather, George Cowan, lives in Everett.

“Rockin’ Ever After” features characters from “Brave,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Tangled” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Of course, there’s Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and the gang.

“It has a little bit of new, little bit of old,” Cowan said. “It’s not just a girly girl show. There’s a lot of fun stuff for boys and the parents as well.”

In addition to exuberant and strong-willed princesses, there are men in kilts playing bagpipes and hooligans unleashing musical mayhem with giant frying pans in hand.

In this ice debut of “Brave,” the red-haired Merida blazes across the ice as if she were running freely through the highlands of her native country.

In a “Little Mermaid” segment, Ariel transforms from mermaid to human when she emerges from Ursula’s cauldron and dangles high over the ice, showing off her brand new legs.

That wasn’t something years of skating had taught her.

“I had to go to circus training school,” Cowan said. “I’m about 30 feet up. My partner at the bottom is spinning me. It was scary at first.

“It’s fun. It’s exciting. It was difficult to learn. It gets a good round of applause.”

Cowan comes from an skate-savvy family. The guys played hockey. She followed in the footsteps of her mom.

“My mother skated with the Ice Capades. She always told me how much fun it was traveling and skating,” Cowans said. “It’s definitely an art. You take a lot of falls before you get it right.”

Cowan began lessons at age 5, but in high school skated for fun.

“In college, I missed it,” said Cowan, an accounting major.

She left school for a skating job in the Netherlands. Her skating career led to travels in Europe, Canada and Mexico. She singed on as Ariel with Disney on Ice in 2012.

Like a Disney movie, she met her prince. In the show, he’s her skating partner, who plays Prince Eric. In real life, he’s Canadian Sean Wirtz, an international figure skating medalist, and her boyfriend.

They do seven to 10 ice shows a week, often traveling together by car.